# Love

People love the things that bring them happiness and value, especially their
favorite communities and people. In the Orbit Model, we prefer words like _love_
and _reach_ to words like _engagement_ and _influence_. Using the words that
members do helps us stay grounded in their experience.

> **Love** is the measure of the member's level of involvement in the community.

Love is
based on how often the member participates — their presence — and the level of
commitment they show through their actions. A member's love
determines their orbit level and their position in the community's field of
gravity.

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Before we discuss measuring and increasing love, let's first look at the two
main components: _presence_ and _commitment_.

## Presence

> **Presence is a measure of a member's pattern of activity**.

It includes the
frequency and regularity with which a member participates. Increasing presence
is one way that a member can increase their love.

Presence can be separated into **frequency** and **recency**.

> **Frequency tells us how often the members participates**.

> **Recency tells us how long it's been since they were last active**.

Here's an example for a handful of different members.

| Member | Frequency                      | Recency            |
| ------ | ------------------------------ | ------------------ |
| Davis  | 4 days active / week           | Active 2 days ago  |
| Mary   | 2 days active in the last year | Active 95 days ago |
| Avery  | 1 day active / month           | Active 60 days ago |

Every member has a baseline of participation: daily, weekly, yearly or some
value in-between.

### Representing presence

Presence is like a pressure gauge. The gauge is neutral if the member is
participating at their baseline frequency. The gauge is low if the member's
activity has been decreasing. The gauge is high if the member is more active
than their baseline.

![Presence of a member](./presence.jpg)

Deviations from neutral signal that action by a community builder may be
required. If presence in your community is generally low, consider creating more
opportunities to participate or increasing the value that the community creates
for its members.

## Commitment

Commitment is a measure of a member's depth of involvement and level of
leadership. To analyze commitment, we look at the types of activities that a
member is doing. Each different activity type represents a different level of
commitment, ranging from passive to active, from consumption to participation
to ownership.

| Activity type           | Commitment            |
| ----------------------- | --------------------- |
| Organized a meetup      | Active ownership      |
| Volunteered at a meetup | Active participation  |
| Attended a meetup       | Passive participation |
| Read the newsletter     | Passive consumption   |

### Riding the commitment curve

An ideal member journey can be seen as a progression up a [commitment
curve](https://www.carriemelissajones.com/blog/community-commitment-curve). The
member starts off by doing lightweight, low-commitment activities. Over time,
they become a community leader by doing more intensive, higher responsibility
activities.

![Commitment curve](./commitment-curve-simple.jpg)

For an open source community, an example commitment curve journey might look like:

1. Star a repository
1. Open an issue
1. Submit a pull request
1. Publish a blog post

Mapping the commitment curves in your community will help you offer the right
opportunity to the right person at the right time, in order to help them move up
the curve and closer to your community's center of gravity.

### Representing commitment

A member's commitment is represented by their [orbit level](./love/orbit-levels). The
level determines where a member is displayed in the community's field of
gravity.

![Member orbit level](./member-orbit-level.jpg)
